And I’ve gotten a couple of questions about whether these are good on a boat and I’ve seen it discussed on two different forums that I’m on. In general, I like them but there are a few things to aware of.

Because they fit together so nicely, there’s a lot less chafe over time. And that means they don’t develop pin holes.

Since they don’t roll, they’re quiet without having to stuff rags around them.

No metallic taste in foods — some foods will pick up a taste from the cans.

No worry about cans rusting and leaving marks. Cans can rust from salt air, and boxes won’t. But if immersed in water — say in a damp bilge — the boxes can come apart or mildew.

Easier to flatten to put in trash than a can.

No need for a can opener.

If they have a screw top, very easy to save part for later. NOTE: The flip tops, despite being marketed as “resealable” often don’t stay closed with the motion of the boat.

For wine, no glass to break. And those with a spigot are secure against air intrusion.

On the environmental side, since they fit tightly together and the packaging is lighter than a can, it takes less “power” to transport boxed goods to stores on a per-unit basis. They are also more efficient for stores to stock, taking less warehouse space and less shelf space.

Things I don’t like:

There’s plastic (and foil) in them, so you can’t burn them. You have to treat them as plastic as far as trash goes. Generally can’t recycle. But many cans are plastic-lined and can’t be recycled for that reason.

Have to keep them in a dry place — but I keep all foods in bins, so this isn’t a problem.

The ones with a flip top won’t stay closed after opening due to the motion of the boat. You have to put any unused portion of the contents in another container, such as a Lock & Lock. But that’s true of a can as well.

The shelf life is fairly similar between cans or bottles and the Tetra packs, as long as they are in a dry place.

Overall, I prefer boxes to cans because of taking up less space and not rolling. There is the environmental aspect to consider, in that they have to be treated as plastic, but many “tin” cans are also plastic lined and pose a recycling problem. This concern is at least partially offset by less energy needed to transport and less warehouse and store space taken up.

Have you used any boxed food that used to come in cans or bottles? Which do you prefer?

I just threw out a bunch of soups in tetra packs while cleaning a friends boat. They were one to two years expired, and they definitely looked sketchy – warped and concave and lots of discoloration. A lot of canned food can still be eaten if it’s expired, depending on the ingredients and the health of the can itself. Judging by these tetra packs, I would never eat expired food from them.

Do you rinse the boxes or cans before storing after use until they can be disposed of–and do you use salt water if you do rinse them? I want to know the nitty gritty. 30 months and counting until cruising.

Does anyone know if there is any form of recycling in Mexico? We will spend 4 months there this winter (yippee!) but am wondering if they recycle anything anyway. Maybe the choice on that count doesn’t matter as much? I certainly prefer to be as “green” as reasonably possible.

I use a lot of the small tetra packs of milk, cooking cream and coconut milk. The cream and coconut milk tetras are smaller than a can, so just the right amount for adding to curries and sauces for dinners for two. And the individual serving milk tetras mean I don’t have to deal with milk going off, since we really only use it for coffee and tea. I was always throwing away the big tetras mostly full. Once you open a milk tetra, I don’t find it lasts as long as fresh milk. But as we are in SE Asia, fresh milk isn’t as easy to come by. I’ve also occasionally seen 1 litre tetras of yoghurt here that is imported from Europe. I believe it still has to be refrigerated even unopened, but it has a long shelf life until you open. Much nicer yoghurt than the local stuff.

On a related note, in SE Asia you can also buy also foil packets of a lot of things we would usually buy canned in North America, like pineapple chunks, spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, soy sauce and other seasonings. The empty packets should be washed and go in the trash, but really don’t take up much room. Downside, I’m always a little worried they might puncture (although we haven’t had that problem yet) and I don’t know how their long-term shelf life compares to cans. I try to rotate out the food regularly anyway.

Ana M García Arrese not true at all. Cans and broken bottles sunk in deep seas will never be seen again. The broken glass of course will not dissolve but cans will. In either case the impact of our passing is insignificant at the depths. I have never seen a can that had any plastic in its composition. If you have been to any islands you will see that their disposal sites are stretched already. I do everything I can not to add to their problem. Some islands have their disposal sites near the beach and let the ocean relieve them of the accumulated trash.

Hi Bob – I pitch a lot of things over the side outside the 3 mile limit as well. If you see a white coating inside a can that is a vinyl coating and should not be pitched. The real difficulty is that most modern cans only have a rolled lid at the top so taking the bottom off with a can opener to make crushing easier is a major challenge.

Carolyn since I had breast cancer (it was stage zero thank God) three years ago I am trying to stay away from plastics and cans. If plastics get too hot the chemicals leak into the item ( water bottles, etc) and a lot of cans are lined with bpa which also causes cancer. So I try to buy everything in glass or the tetra packs. I have found tomato paste in bpa free cans so I buy that. It is in small print on the can if it does not have bpa. Glass is a challenge on a boat but not impossible.

I’m with you on this. I try to buy glass whenever I can. Not a fan of tin cans at all. In deep water glass isn’t a problem, just fill it, so it sinks quickly, down Nature will grind it down to sand or wonderful sea glass.

The issue of plastic in both boxes and cans is important. Offshore (and as a delivery skipper I spend a lot of time offshore, more than most cruisers) plastic can’t go over the side and accumulated trash becomes a storage problem. In principle if there is room to store it as provisions there is room to store it as trash but in practice cruising is rarely that simple.

In theory the boxes and commercial cans should last almost indefinitely. A bad can is easy to identify – rust and/or swelling – but I haven’t found a way to easily identify a “bad” box other than the date which is usually overly conservative.

What I do avoid at all costs is dehydrated food. Cans or boxes help solve a water supply problem. Dried food just makes a water supply problem more challenging.

My understanding is that all the different layers of the Tetra Pak carton (paper fibres, polymers and aluminium) can be recycled using relatively simple techniques and turned into new products. There are people out there who do this work. Chucking empty cartons in the sea hardly rates as appropriate human activity. Many so-called “primitive” tribes (when they still existed) had no word for ‘rubbish’ in their vocabulary

Please note: I'm currently cruising and don't have internet all the time. Comment approval may be delayed a few days!

Welcome to The Boat Galley

Hi! I'm Carolyn Shearlock. Here you'll find over 1,000 articles with practical tips and info, all based on my years of full-time cruising -- first on a monohull in Mexico and Central America and now on a catamaran in Florida.

After 1,100 miles in the Bahamas this summer, we're back in the Keys and readying the boat to island-hop down to the Virgin Islands this winter.

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